The first thing you will need is a high capacity reel to accommodate a minimum of 5 colors of 27# lead line, a soft rod designed for trolling with a longer handle, and two types of leader material, fluorocarbon for the 6 feet between the swivel and hook and 50 feet of 17-20# XT or Ironsilk for the leader that you will attach to the lead. My personal favorite for this rod/reel combo is the Power Pak 415 LC reel and Daiwa Heartland 8' HL-SD802MS-G, both available at Charlie's in Albuquerque for around $85. Make sure you put some backing on the reel before spooling the lead and that you have enough room to attach the leader. My preferred method for attaching leader to the leadcore is to remove some of the lead from about 1.5 inches of the leadcore. After this has been done, slide your mono leader line (50 foot length) into the nylon of the lead, then saturate the line where they overlap with Krazy Glue (original formula, do not use gel or other types, they do not work as well). Once this is set, you should have a nice, seamless, transition from leadcore to mono that will not break. This method has been used for years on the Great Lakes and is still the best in my book.

After you have the rod/reel/line setup complete, you are ready for the swivel and hook. With a piece of 16# Sugoi Fluorocarbon, snell your hook on (2/0 or 3/0 Gamakatsu Red Octopus Circle hook for larger minnows and a number 2 for smaller ones and shad) and then attach a Sampo bait swivel with a palomar knot. You now have a hook and leader and your main line. Attach your hook leader to the main line leader again with a Palomar knot. You now have a system that, if snagged, will break and you should only loose your hook, not everything. This is generally enough strength to handle a fish upwards of 30#s if played correctly with a good drag system.

You are now ready to fish. Attach your minnow (sucker, shiner, carp, sunfish) through the lips or (shad) sideways through the nasal cavity. Be very careful when handling your minnows and be sure to have wet hands, this will do the least amount of damage to the bait. Let out 1-5 colors of lead depending on where the fish you are marking on your sonar are. At Elephant Butte, most of the active fish spend their time year round in the top 20-foot of the water column when active, this is 1-4 colors of lead, I've not had much success catching fish deeper than 25 feet trolling. The last ingredient to ensure success with trolling for Linesides are inline planer boards. These fish are very weary of the boat and getting your bait out to the side is crucial. We prefer the Offshore Side Planer rigged with the black light release clip in the front and a snap swivel in the back. We attach an Offshore speed bead above the leader swivel to prevent the board from sliding all the way down to the fish. With the boards rigged in this fashion, they will release upon a strike and if you are fishing multiple lines, the fish will tend to come to the middle and you can fight the fish while leaving the other lines in the water.

Outside of finding the fish and getting good fresh bait, this is one of our most successful tactics for targeting Striper in stained water. Cranks, spoons, and downlining don't seem to work as well when the water is very murky.

Our next article will explain the 50/50 Snapweight system if leadcore is not to your liking.